Vision

From Northsidewiki

General vision

Northside Neighbors is an organization of residents and homeowners in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

We are dedicated to the protection and improvement of the life of our distinctive area of the city.

We believe that the best qualities of our Northside neighborhood can be sustained through effective consultation and planning, in a spirit of tolerance and cooperation.

We hold that the distinctive boundaries of our present neighborhood are the Huron River to the west and south, Barton Drive to the north, and Plymouth Road to the east.

We believe that the early commercial, industrial, and residential area known historically as Lower Town is an important indelible part of our neighborhood.

We accept the approach to planning and neighborhood improvement of Northside envisioned in the Northeast Area Plan.

We believe that community organizations should work mutually and absolutely with Planning and Zoning.

Details

We share several goals:

• Affordable Housing. Through cooperation with the City and with private organizations, we wish to establish an environment for quality affordable housing designed and maintained in keeping with the neighborhood. Northside offers easy access to major employers, to important City institutions and services, and to good bus routes. Through City cooperation and grants, we also seek to improve the quality of existing affordable housing in the neighborhood.

• Lower Town. Northside Neighbors does not yield its interest in the past and future of the early commercial, industrial, and residential area known as Lower Town. We will work with City, University, MichCon, and Lower Town Development management to enhance amenities prospectively envisioned for Lower Town. We will work to assure the long-term compatibility among commercial, industrial, and residential uses in the neighborhood. We wish to assure the conservation and imaginative reuse of the older MichCon and DTE plants. We will work with the City and State to press the clean-up of toxic waste areas so that such land can be effectively reused.

• Northside School. Northside School is a most important cultural institution within the Northside neighborhood. Northside Neighbors will work with school authorities, the City, and other entities to establish a foundation to support special activities at the school and the maintenance of the school as a community hub. Northside Neighbors has a goal of developing a plan for a school performance space that would also serve neighborhood needs.

• Parks. We will work with the City to create where possible additional mini play-parks and gardens. We will work with the City to make Pontiac Trail a “pedestrian park” in which the City assumes responsibilities for the maintenance of pedestrian ways and will work with the neighborhood to establish imaginative amenities to support pedestrian traffic and pedestrian commuting.

• Roadways. We are concerned about the impact on the Northside neighborhood of heavy commuter traffic on our roads. We will encourage the City to establish traffic calming and traffic diverting measures.

• Conservation of Buildings. We wish to work in cooperation with the City to assure the physical conservation of older structures in the neighborhood. While we believe there is scope for the application of grants, easements, property tax holidays, and other innovative methods to the conservation of older structures, we believe an important key to conservation is constructing an environment where homeowners can draw on the advice of City agencies, including Planning and Zoning, for conservation guidance and support in sustaining these older structures. However we believe that, in general, control over aesthetic decisions should be left to individual property owners. We do not hold that tax credits by themselves are fair, equitable, practical, and progressive ways of assuring that older structures in the neighborhood are conserved. We will work to establish a program of funded easements where Northside homeowners are able to give up rights to develop open land in the neighborhood or agree to more restricting RF zoning.

• Planning and Zoning. We wish to work with the City to make assure that Planning and Zoning regulations, procedures, and consultations will:
  • Assure the maintenance and enforcement of zoning appropriate to a predominantly residential area.
  • Assure that neighbors will be able to facilitate, where desired, changes from RF 2 to RF 1 zoning.
  • Assure that any tear-down of an existing building is per City ordinance and zoning codes and that building owners are provided with professional counsel on how to conserve buildings that may appear to be lost.
  • Assure that Planning and Zoning codes restrict the the construction of new buildings or the renovation of old ones that would in bulk significantly overwhelm neighboring buildings.
  • Through effective consultation and action, apply planning and zoning principles to the railway right-of-way that transects the neighborhood.
  • Assure that buildings are occupied and used in conformance with City ordinances.
  • Encourage new construction that contributes positively to the eclectic architecture of the neighborhood, while supporting a variety of outdoor activities and social interactions, and respecting neighboring open spaces and natural sunlight.
  • Assure that current residents have a real say in the direction of future development in the neighborhood.

(Thanks to David Cohen for getting this document started!)